Maarten is the best photo friend I never knew I needed in my life. Thanks, Mr. Heilbron! A true gentleman and a class production.

LMAO! "Random, generic advice from strangers . . ." Maarten, you consistently nail that bone dry humor that I so thoroughly enjoy. Thanks! 😂

Thanks Maarten. I appreciate the effort that you've put into this video. Anyone who watches this will have some homework to do, even if they've done it before.

Well done as always Maarten! Thank you for your insight and your ability to teach a hobbyist, like myself, in a very straightforward and entertaining way!

I’m an amateur photographer. I’ve read about “exposing to the right” several times, and I can say, very proudly, that I came to your same conclusions just from experience. Great video, as usual.

Thank you for another great teaching. Comparing to clipping in audio make it so clear.

Thanks Maarten, another well paced, informative piece. The ETTR vids have been on my mind. I loved the final advice, I will keep shooting until the battery runs out (memory card takes a bit longer).

Thank you Maarten for this amazing tutorial lesson...

As a musician, it's Interesting to hear the audio analogy. I never really consciously thought about how similar light exposure would be to audio levels. Interesting stuff, and good video!

Although this is a topic that I've seen many times, this is a solid explanation Marteen. Nice to see these kind of videos.

Maarten, you have the best photography videos. Thanks for your devotion to this art.

Best ETTR discussion on the net! Keep it rolling!

Calm, clear and informative, maybe most informative presenter here.

Great video Maarten! I wish this was available when I started in photography quite a few years ago, you would´ve saved me from a few headaches and missed shots. Thank you for sharing and keep up the good work! Stay safe!

Thank you Maarten. Amazing video with valuable information I never found anywhere else. Liked and subscribed.

Your videos are always so well thought out, well produced, and full of great info. Although I think I may know the subject I will watch every minute of your videos and I always pick up a nuget or two. Thanks. Cheers.

Absolutely Brilliant!! the whimsical smile has me subscribed. I slightly shoot to the right, knowing my camera's histogram is based on the JPG output so when I bring my RAW file into LR, the histogram is the RAW output, thus more latitude with highlights and shadows adjustments.

Hi Maarten, just found your channel and although I am principally a video rather than a stills shooter, I found this so clear and helpful that I instantly subscribed. Looking forward to enjoying more of your videos here!

This helps a lot. Can't wait to try this out. So glad I came across this while bing watching your videos.

Thank you. I learned photography from an online instructor and now friend who taught expose to the left. Recently I have been doing watching a lot of KZfaq videos and so many say ETTR.

You make such lovely videos. Very educational and well put together.

Great video as usual. I love having these tutorials available. If you can do more, i think a lot of folks would appreciate learning how to shoot better / be more confident rather than drooling over the next hot camera or lens. Well done!

Thank you so much for your kind generosity in sharing your wisdom.

I am sure that ETTR has its suitable application as all techniques do, but I haven't run into them. Thank you for making such clear and straightforward videos

Excellent video Maarten I always gain watching your work.

Big fan here. I have blown highlights on more than one occasion, thanks for the informative video. I will expose to the wrong for here on out.

Spot on Maarten, I've always found that exposing to the right usually flattens the colour depth somehow, leaving the colour palette lacking contrast and integrity that cannot be got back by editing the raw file. I do agree about getting a correctly exposed jpeg if possible as a lot of the time this is more thank good enough and usually better than I could do editing a raw file. This applies to both my fujifilm xt2 and Ricoh grii cameras and isnt brand specific as it has applied to past cameras that I have owned such as Lumix, Nikon and Olympus. Thanks for a really good video. Cheers Ian.

Thanks Maarten, loved the way you presented this.

Dear Maarten, Another wonderfully explained video. I agree with what you're saying especially since you can shoot a jpeg and a RAW image at the same time. Moreover, testing each camera with a chip chart, like the one you use, is really important to gain confidence in the decision one winds up making. 'Hope you are still doing well!

I never understood expose to the right except for that time I accidentally wandered into a leather bar. But, personally, I prefer under exposing a stop or two in video. No recovering that sheen on my forehead. Perfectly exposed video.

Thanks always for all this great information Maarten!!!!! Always great to watch your videos!!!

Thanks Maarten for the important lesson on how to properly expose an image ! Scarboro

Always refreshing and insightful listening to you.

Thanks Maarten for your valuable insights.

Thank you Maarten. You have a good way of explaining things. Just a few days ago I was thinking of just this topic. But since I am an electronics engineer, my eqvivalent comparison with the sound is the transistor. If you push the volume/gain you will get clippings that you cannot recover later. Whereas the low volume/gain you could adjust it later, with only (some?) noice as a defect. Just like you said with distorsion! So I was a bit supprised that just saw your video about this topic. I hope that you are all well - take care and stay safe!

Thnx for making me reconsider Maarten.

So well balanced. Thank you for this.

Sir, I always learn something from you. Thank you.

Maarten, Great information ' as a 50+ Professional Photographer . Thank you for making it clear. Cheers

Marteen you are the best teacher by almost 3dB! From now on I will follow your advise instead of the Instagram... ehm Histogram

Interesting video. Thank you for your time and work.

Good tips. I'm still learning how to set the exposure and what buttons to use to do so on my camera. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I get it wrong but with practice I am getting better! Thanks for sharing.

Great Video. On my D850, I have the bottom front button mapped to the highlight meter mode. In sunny16 conditions, I will hold that down and adjust the meter to 0-1/3 over. When I let go of the button the meter will read like its under exposed, but the photos come out nearly perfect every time. I LOVE your meter mantra, "you're not a slave to the meter". 🤠

Thank you so much for this video. ETTR to me has an emotional aspect as well. Michael Reichmann, RIP, coined the term many years ago when he founded and ran the luminous landscape. I got to know Michael through his website, blogs and videos, and was lucky to travel with him to Antarctica. I will have to admit that ETTR made sense to me back then, and I have used it extensively. That said, over time I started to ”properly” expose my photos especially when I’m sharing JPGs OOC with friends and family. Typically those files transfer to your phone or iPad in a much smaller format that does not lend itself to dynamic range recovery, I found myself sharing truly overexposed photos with others when I ETTRed. I wonder if when MR came up with ETTR, if most cameras had a more limited dynamic range than current cameras, and sharing was done through Lightroom and other computer platforms after the RAW files have been “developed” which gave time to recover those highlights and open up those shadows. Todays video opened up the shadows of my memories remembering fondly a friend and mentor and of course learning a thing or 2. Thank you so much, please stay safe and keep on sharing.

This is really very interesting - and brilliantly explained!

Excellent tutorial as always. Thank you.

Another excellent tutorial/analysis Maarten 👌

Thanks a lot for the interesting content and the inspiring presentation style

Consider me sub'd. This is a very interesting topic Maarten, and one that resonates with me...particularly your comparison with audio. I have played with audio for many years now (live music and recording). On the other hand, with my photography I only really started to consider histograms and purposely over/under exposing in the past year or two, and it's been (and continues to be) a revelation. Your comparison with audio levels is good I think, and this is how I am guided with regards to exposing 'to the right'. When recording audio or simply using microphones etc, the aim for me has always been to have the highest possible signal through the path - until the final mix down. This is done to provide the greatest capture of detail (if it's digital, for example, then you may as well be using all of the bits that you can!), and the lowest comparative noise (after all, if your audio signal is only marginally higher than the noise floor, it's going to sound ugly). Of course, the quality of the equipment used helps a lot, and I think this is analogous to the quality of the camera equipment you are using in photography. Pushing the limits on audio can result in compression of the signal though, even before clipping. This could result in a loss of detail (though can be desirable) in terms of variance in the level, and I wonder if this also happens with sensors. I also wonder, will it happen more so with one sensor than another? I shoot with a Pentax KP and an Olympus E-M5ii. I have observed, quite recently, that the Pentax is much better at recovering details from the shadows - as everybody tells you when you shoot micro four-thirds - and if you push those whites too high, you will lose tone and detail as you have said. As a result, I try to be careful just how much I push those highlights if I want to retain any ability to bring back the colours and smooth tonality in those areas of the exposure. I was shooting the same way with my E-M5ii, when an Olympus rep told me that those cameras are quite good at recovering blown out portions of the shot. Well...I started pushing things a little more with the Olympus and - wow - yes it does indeed recover the highlights well...much better than my Pentax KP can. So, is this some un known and unsung advantage (finally) of smaller photosensor sites inherent with micro four-thirds...or maybe just the underlying electronics. I wondered if the different sensors simply 'compress' the highlights differently as clipping is approached? Maybe it's simply down to the histogram information each camera presents, and my interpretation of that! Either way, this has resulted in me approaching the exposure a little differently in each camera - the Olympus now goes hard right sometimes (maybe often, but not always), whereas with the Pentax I am a little less worried about losing the shadows (I expose to the right, but...gently?). Not sure I agree that there is no analogue for aperture and shutter speed in recording. If you get a little abstract, then maybe distance to subject, and microphone type and placement can be thrown into the mix as a replacement for aperture/shutter (moving closer to your target with a camera doesn't necessarily make the shadows brighter, but with a microphone, it will certainly increase the sound level vs noise floor)! Ok, it's a stretch. I suppose you could consider that audio recording is like using a bunch of prime lenses with fixed apertures! Thanks for the video!

Thank you. Even on topics I thought I knew all about, watching your videos teaches me something new or something I had not thought about before. If I’m shooting a landscape scene, I’ll often expose 1 stop to the left, so that I can recover more detail and toning in the sky. But I always shoot in RAW. Another trick I do on my Nikon is to have the default meter mode as matrix but have a function key set to switch to spot metering. This is useful in high contrast situations where I can double check the localised exposure in the darker parts of the image by just pressing the function key. Often matrix say ok as an average but double checking with spot says too dark where my subject is.. Anyway, thanks again

Probably, like many others, I’ve read and watched lots about ETTR and experimented quite a bit too. Shooting more wildlife than anything else and doing so mostly in manual with auto ISO, I am always riding my exposure compensation but I agree with you in that I’m more prone to blow highlights if overcooking my exposye, than to be unable to recover details from shadows in slightly darker images. Great video and very useful. Thanks.

There is a hype on the internet telling you (telling me) to ETTR... expose to the right, I watched nearly 25 videos about this so I decided to give a try myself and I don't just like it at all, I think in some cases, doing ETTR using exposure compensation +1/3, +2/3 or one full stop is killing the highlights and I lost some important details, mostly in the sky and white clouds. I tried this "technique" on my Z6, D610, D750, FUJI X-PRO2 and X-T3, even on my Canon 5D MKIII and finally I decided NOT to use this recommandation anymore. I am doing mostly the opposite, I tend to under expose my pictures -0.3 or -0.7 stops, particularly with the D750, all the other cameras I have are ok. Thanks for the useful information and I am happy not to be alone ! ;-) Regards.

Very informative as always. I think that what most “expose to the right” advocates forget to mention is that there are times when it won’t give you more useful information. It is those times that will require post-processing, and you could have had just as good result straight out of the camera.

I mentioned this on a photography FB page once and it caused a bit of histogram hysteria ‘nope you must expose to the right especially for landscape ..’ . I take your stance on exposure and that’s what they didn’t like, maybe I didn’t explain as eloquently as you. Anyway, I’ve closed my FB account now, not for the reason above I might add! I’m with you on this topic.

Another competent video. I need to try to remember to evaluate the histogram more often. Still, I shoot raw and am mostly quite happy with the results when processed. Difficult lighting situations would benefit from bracketing, though. Thanks again.

Thank you Maarten.

Another great one. I've had this debate a few times with others.

Hello Maarten...A new subscriber here. Thank you for this video, thoughtful and considered. I will try to apply this information to my own Photographs. Thank You...

I tried the whole ETTR thing several years ago. And while it sounds good in theory and the math checks out I came to the same conclusion as you. No matter how hard I tried I could see no meaningful difference and this was with a camera from 2008. My preferred strategy mostly is to try to get the exposure I want in camera and then make small adjustments. Sometimes I will expose for the highlights and then adjust the shadows. I highly recommend the book “Understanding Exposure” by Bryan Peterson to anyone who would like to learn more about exposure and how it relates to their photography.

Like usually very informative and visually very well done, thank you Maarten. I prefer using highlight alert on my 1DX for work and viewfinder/screen on my Olympus E-M1 for personal stuff to determine exposure.

Yes, like audio, a hot signal, but not too hot !! ... we could say a reasonably hot signal.... thanks for the excelllent video

super video again! I realised that from old school film i’d rather underexpose to recover later in the lab. Well there is no longer a lab but still find it better to stay on the left. However I nearly always do JPG and RAW. Thanks again, Johannes

I agree. I’ve tried using this theory of ETTR numerous times but it never really worked for me since I shoot a lot of animal portraits and over exposed highlights on fur can ruin the image. But the highlight weighted metering feature usually under exposes too much too. It pays to get to know how your camera handles different lighting situations and adjust accordingly. Thanks for another informative video!

Outstanding. Subscribed. Thanks.

Thanks Maarten. This was an eye-opener for me. :-)

Interesting video once again and as always very detailed

I generally expose a tad to the Left -- 1/3 stop under, to try to keep highlights decent. And speaking of analogies, hue is like pitch.

I greatly appreciate this video. After learning of the ETTR approach, when I applied it in practice I found that the images produced were almost always over-exposed for my purposes and tastes. I like rich shadows and good contrast in images more than I care about "proper exposure". For that reason I don't really think about it unless I'm in an HDR scenario, where I'm having to choose what to preserve because the camera simply can't get everything. My general rule is "keep the bulk of the histogram away from both extremes unless it's what I'm going for. Also, FWIW, I find my XT3 tends to expose things a little "hot" for my personal tastes, so unless I'm in full manual I usually have exposure compensation bumped down 1/3.

I like the ISO/volume analogy!

Hey Maarten, Loved the tips. Anything to help improve my photography is always a good thing. Thanks 🙏

Very well and appreciated.

The histogram does my head in 🤪 On my trusty D810 I shoot in manual with auto ISO and often simply use the exposure bracketing button. 3 shots rattled off with 1 stop up and down. Job done. Just choose the best one to edit. Great video 👍🏼

Thanks Maarten, great tutorial!.

The information on this video is correct... for a camera with ISO invariance (like the Nikon you are using with a Sony sensor). It's not the same if the camera has a different sensor technology. Historically (as this may change) Canon cameras benefit a lot from ETTR shooting as long as you don't clip the highlights. With a scene that does not demand all the dynamic range of the sensor (think a winter and snow scene), you will get much more adjustment latitude (cleaner final image) if the histogram is more to the right, even if the picture looks "too bright" out of the camera. For ISO invariant cameras (Nikon, Sony, Fuji...), it's the same to brighten the image in the RAW development than increasing the ISO in the camera, so it makes sense to underexpose a little to protect the highlights.

Finally!! A sensible soul to debunk the overplayed “ETTR” mythology. In digital photography (unlike film photography) the overexposed range is where the greatest danger lies in destroying the detail in your images. By definition, anything exposed beyond 0dBFS (full-scale) has NO more capacity to record anything, and is by definition unrecoverable, yes even shooting raw. To continue the audio analogy, this is what we call "clipping" and the digital medium's ability to record any level above this abruptly falls to zero at full-scale. This is in contrast to the response of analog film, which compresses gently at both ends of the dynamic range, in what we describe as the log d/e curve. ETTR might be a working method that works for certain people, under certain circumstances, shooting certain types of photography, but as a general rule it will not be helpful for any given photographer. It is better to have some noise in shadows than to have blown-out highlights that cannot be recovered.

Excellent analysis.

Thanks for the mythbuster tip!

Very informative!!Thank you!!🌹🌹

Hello Maarten, thank you, for the analytic approach of this subject. Exposing to the right is/was popular with some older e.g. Canon camera's due to the limited dynamic range and noisy camera amplification. It was mostly needed if you wanted to push the shadows to the extreme in raw post processing. Raw processors have improved a lot since the last 15 years and are cleaner. Just reprocess some raw files of an older 5DII-7D or D300-D700 and you will notice a different, better, cleaner output. This technique has been exagerated in the last years on media platforms We are spoiled now with the mirrorless camera's who can display the histogram when taking the picture. I would suggest showing the RGB histogram as the luminance histogram, as it is possible you blow one of the channels and the colour information of that channel is not recoverable in post. Knowing your camera is the most important aspect of this technique. Experiment With the latest generation of camera's claiming in some cases claiming 14+ stops of dynamic range at base iso, I am of the opinion this technique is not needed anymore. With the current generation of camera technology we have the inverse of the famous Ansell Adams quote "expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights" to a more current "digital version" as "expose for the highlights, develop for the shadows". In high contrast scenes using Matrix or Evaluative metering I tend to underexpose by 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop if I have no time to do spot metering. You can still revert to exposure bracketting if you wanted to record the higher dynamic range of the picture. I noticed however that people are going away from that extreme HDR look.

I normally start with overexposure + 1.3 EV (set in custom settings). In the viewfinder I have overexposed pixels converted to intense orange and underexposed converted to intense blue. So it is easy to avoid overexposure - just rotate the dial to the left until almost all orange dissapears and that's it. This technique significanlty reduces noise especially when using smaller sensors and when printing very large. Of course exposure time or aperture should be changed - not ISO. For small prints or internet: just forget it.

Thank you Maarten. To be honest I only understood about 50%, but will come back to it. But I will definitely do some bracketing on a tripod to understand my camera better and import it into CaptureOne. After that I will rematch your video. So thank you for helping me becoming a better photographer

Hey! New intro! Now to learn this one...

Great info Maarten thanks😄

Great video!

Your videos are always informative. I have noticed with my Fuji xt2 if I expose more in camera than raise the exposure in Lightroom the image is much cleaner. If the subject is already illuminated there is not as much noise but if the subject is in shadow and I raise the exposure or increase shadows the noise comes in fast. I am under the impression that a full frame camera would give cleaner results but I have not tried one side by side to compare. Thank you for the video Martin.

Very interesting Video Maarten

In the old days of Mamiya RZ/Hass 503 - I used Velvia 50/NPS160 and NHG400 from Fuji - I used to have a Fuji Pro lab as well as a studio and the prints would always come out better by underexposing /4 to 1/ 2 a stop - now I use a Fuji GFX - my cam is perm set on under by about the same!!!!!!!! - A good exposure is determined by you not the camera. Excellent video and perfectly explained - to be fair though - digital has a great deal more latitude in post compared to the old days of film - Thanks

thanks Maarten, very interesting. I've always tended to underexpose my digital images and then lift the shadows in post to protect highlights.

Very good. Thank you.

This was an excellent explanation 👍🏼

Thank you for this! I kept hearing ETTR and then 'sculpt' the light down for contrast. I sort of believed the shadow-detail recovery aspect of that advice, which you have largely debunked here, perhaps it was truer for sensors 15 years ago. What I never believed was that I could retain colour in, say, a sunset by making it almost white and trying to recover the highlights in post, and your video shows this is the case even on cameras with better dynamic range than mine. Cheers from Ottawa

The gamma curve when shooting in RAW does provide a slight advantage when shooting to the right. But, never so much that you clip the highlights, so the direction to the right is subtle. That said, exposing to the right gives up dynamic range (potentially). The only time I actually do this is when an HDR (3-shot+) is not practical and I need to get detail in the shadows that I otherwise would not be able to achieve. Bottom line, what you refer to as the "correct" exposure is almost always the best choice. Nice presentation Maarten.

As anyone with a bit of experience with digital cameras will tell you, digital sensors are better at storing shadow data(in not exactly sure of the reason), and thus it is better to expose for the highlights than the shadows as the shadows are easier to recover in post later. ETTR is outdated unless you shoot in certain log formats. Thank you for your work Mr. Heilbronn!

A very useful video. I shoot RAW and often shoot at -1/3 EV and it works well for me. I shoot RAW and honestly don’t understand the fascination with straight of out camera jpegs. Lightroom does a great job with RAW files and it need not take long.

Hi Maarten, Another great video! A video suggestion I think would be fun would be an "blast from the past" where you run through a camera from the past the same way you would review a modern Camera. For example Nikon D3, D700, D300s, etc. Would be very interesting!! Cheers

Good lesson..

So clear thank you

You are spot on! With digital images you can easily get clipping of the highlights. I was doing all the time :( Better to error on the dark side, no doubt. In the Micro Four Thirds world, what they are trying to do is to go as far right as possible, without clipping, so that you will see less grain. Given the choice between say too bright leaves showing white spots, and a little more grain and actually seeing all green, I will take the little bit more grain. I do shoot JPG, so if shooting against the light, or other brutal circumstance, I shoot another image or two, like bracketing does. I just don't bracket every shot I take. If shooting to the right, I say it is best to shoot another shot a little under that. The problem is when trying to capture the moment, such as street photography, you get one shot at it. I know, you can bracket. The Zebra works pretty good on Panasonic cameras to indicate overexposure when shooting. Metering systems are great these days, but they don't always know what you wanting to expose the most, unless you go Spot. Ah yes, spot looked fine, and the rest too dark or too light, but there are times for such choices. The Matrix type metering is pretty good -- I use that and go from there. Most prime lenses, I go with -1/3 though some kit lenses, like Nikon, seem to favor a +1/3 amount of light compensation on the meter. -Loren lorenschwiderski.smugmug.com/

Spot on. Even with a M43, I feel the benefits are limited and Topaz Denoise has been helpful in cleaning noise. My method is expose to the right... exposure. Bird photography, I guess I expose to the right because you usually have to expose about one stop brighter or greater to get the details of the birds. However, use the method of always exposing to the right with a swan or the background is darker than the bird, you risk blowing out the details.

In my very limited experience (less than 2 years) I've found I lose ability to "repair" over exposed highlights much more than under exposed shadows. I'm constantly surprised when I have an under exposed image in post that I can recover info in the shadows. Cameras these days have amazing dynamic range. Even the less than top of the line models, like my X-T100. As always, enjoyed the video Maarten.